Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-04-13
SERMON OF REV. DR.. YALHAGE LAST SUNDAY

DuuMVu We bBts Vus 1uUmhuu uuul DuuVAls
WHEN WE Go OUT OF THIS WORLD WE ARE
GOING TO A KINGS BANoUET-wE Do NOT
WANT OUR BODIES RETURNED AS THEY ARE
Now-THE THUNDER OF THE LAST DAY WILL
BE THE sALvo THAT aREETs YOU INTO HAR-
Dor.
BRooKLYS, April lO.-Toda being Easter
Sunday the Tabernacle was prOfusely deco
rated with flowers. The pulpit, the pillars and
Prof. Browne, the organiat. and Prof. All, the
cornetlst. rendered selections from Handel,
Haydn and Beethoven, appropriate to the day
celebrated. The subject of DR.. Talmage's dis
course was, 1.-THE Overthrow of the Monster"
and his text. Isaiah chapter %. verse S:"He
will swallow up death In victory" DIR. Tai
mage said:
About eighteen hundred and ffty-three
Easter mornings have wakened the earth. In
France for three centuries the almsnacs made
the year begin at Easter, until Charles TX.
made the year begin at January LIST. In the
Tower OF London there is royal pay roll OF
Edward L :, on which there is an entry of eigh-
teen pence for four hundred colored and pic
tured Easter eggs. with which the people
were distributed on Easter. Ecclesiastical
councils met at Pontus, at Gaul. at Rome. at
Achaia to decide the particular day, and after
a controversy, more animated then gracious,
decided 1t and now through all Christendom,
| in some way the first Sunday after the full
moon which happens upon or next after March
2lst, is f1llei with Easter rejoicing.
The Royal Court of the Sabbaths is made up
of fiftytwo. Fifty-one are princes in the roy al
household, but Easter is queen, She wears
richer diadem. and sways a more jewelled
sceptre, aud in her smile nations are i'm adated.
Unusually welcome this year because OF the
harsh winter and the late spring, she seems
| to step ouI of the snowbank rather than the
conservatory, come out Of the North instead
| of the South. out of the Arctic rather than the
tropics, dis mounting from the icy equinox;
but welcome This queenly day. holding high
up in her right hand the wrenched-of bot of
Christs sepulchre, and holding high up in her
left hand he key to all the cemeteries In Chris.
tendon.
1t is an exciting thing to see an army routed
and flying They run each other down. They
scatter everything valuable In the track. Un-
| wheeled artillery; hoof of horse on breast of
wounded and dying man. You have read OF
| the French falling back from Sedan, or Napo-
| leon g track OF ninety thousand corpses in the
snowbanks of Russia, or Of the retreat of our
kings tumbling over the rocks of Betho: an
with thei armies, while the hail storms OF
Heaven an the swords of Joshua's host struck
| them with their fury. In my text is a worse
discom titure. 1t seems that q black giant pro
posed to conquer the earth. He gathered for
| his host H the aches and pains and malarias
| and cancers and distempers and ep1demlcs or
the ages He marched them down. drilling
| them in the notheast wind and amid the slush
mound He pitched tent of charnel-house.-
Some of he troops marched with slow tread
commanded by consumptiOns, some in double
| quick, com manded by pneumonias. Some he
| took by ltng besiegement of evil habit, and
| some ny ore stroke of the battle axe of casu-
| atty. With bony hand he pounded at the door
| OF hospitals and sick rooms, and won all the
victories in all the great battlefields of all the
| five continents. Forward march, the conquerer
| of conQuerors and all the generals and com
mander- chief and all Presidents and kings
and sultan. and cars drop under the feet of
| his war CHI rger But one Christmas night his
antagonist vas born. AS most of the plaques
and sicknasses and despotisms come on. OF the
| East, 1t WAS appropriate that the new con-
| oueror should come out of the same quarter =
4 PrVV 6 u
| of all the CENTURIES and of al lands and mar
| shall them against the black giant Fields
| have already been won, but the last day of the
worlds e. stence viii see the decisive battle -
| When Oh shall lead forth his two brgades.
t" e brigade of the risen dead and The brigade
| of the celestial host. the black giant will fall
| back ana the brigade from the riyen sepu-
| chres wili.take Him from beneath and the
brigade Of descend ng immortals will take II i'm
| from above. and death shall be swallowed up
| In victory
The OLD braggart that threatened the cou-
Quest and ,:e tlolitiOn of the planet has lost bis
| throne has lost his sceptre, has lost his palace
has lost prestige. and the one word written
over all the gates of mausoleum and eatacomo
on the Lonely shan of the Arctic explorer. and
] on the cata faIque of great cathedral written
| in capitals of azalea and Gala lily. written in
| musical cadence, written in doxoogy of great
| assemblag=', written on the sculptured door
of the family vault. is victory" Coronal
chief word of the triumphal arch under which
conquero-s return.
| Victory! word snOubeu at CullOQen anu
| Balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo and
Solferino, a. Marathon, where the Athenians
drove b,ck the Modes; at Poictiers. where
Charles n .rtel broke the ranks of the Sara
| ceus; at Sa amis, where Themistocles in the
great set light confounded the Persians, and
at the doc of The eastern cavern of chiselled
| rock, whe.e Christ came out through recess
| and thrott I'D the King of TerrOrs and put him
back in the niche from which the celestial
Conquer lad Just emerged. Aha! when the
black giant death was swallowed up in vic
tory nr'claim the abolition of death.
| The Old a 'tagonist is driven back into my
| thology n all the lore about Stygian ferry
and Charon with oar and boat. Melrose Alb
hey and i.enil worth Castle are no mora in
| ruins than is the sepulchre. We shall have %
| more to 90 with death than we have with the
| cloak room at o Governors or Presidents
| levee. We stop at such cloak-ronm and leave
in charge 81 a servant our overcoat. our over
| shoes. onr utward apparel, that we may not
| be impedei in the brilliant round of the draw
ing ,ooa. Well my friends, when we go out
of this wor L we are going to a Kings banquet,
and To a r'ception of ronarchs, and at the
door Of the tomb we leave the cloak of flesh
l and the W ppings with which we meet the
| storms # his world. At the close Ofan earth
| ly recspii"n. under the brush and broom of
| the porter :iie coat or hat may he handed to US
better than 1hen we resigned it, and the cloak
| of hu rani y will finally be returned to us i'm
| proved and frightened and purified and glori-
| fed.
| You and / do not want our bodies returned
| as they now. We want to get rid of all
their weak es-es and all their susceptibilities
| They will be put through chemistry of SOIL
and heat ald co Id and changing seasons out
| of which q ID will reconstruct them as much
| better tha,. they are now as the body of the
| rosiest and healthiest child thatbOunds over
| the lawn at Prospect Pa k is better than the
| sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital. But as
| to our soul, we will cross right over. not wait
| ing for obsequits, independent of obituary,
room and yalocisies beyond computation; the
| dullest Dr. us into companionship with the
| very best spirits in their very best mood. in
1 tho,
FURNISHED and pannelled and pictured and
| giorlfed with all the splendors that the in
finite God IN all the ages has been able to in
This view, Of course makes it of but little
| Importance whether we are cremated or suppl
| tured Ifu e latter is dust to dust, the former
| is ashes 10 ashes. If any prefer incarceration
| let them have it without caricature. The
world may iecome SO crowded that cremation
| may be universally adopted by law as well as
! by general consent. Many OF the mightiest
| and best spirits have gone through this pro-
| cess. Thousands and tens of thousands Of
Gods chi d en- have been cremated-P. p Bliss
| and wife, the evangelistic singers. cremated by
accident a, Ashtabula bridge; John Rodgers,
cremated al oxford; Pothinus and Blandina. q
| slave, and Alexander, physician, and their
| comrades. cremated at the order of Marcns
| Aurelius-..t least hundred thousand of
| Christ's d. cipies cremated-and there can be
| no doubt about the resurrection Of their
| bodies, 1.-THE world lasts as mu IN longer 3
! it has alre.ay been built, there perhaps may
| be no room for the large acreage set apart for
| the resting place, but that time has not come
Plenty of r.s,In yet. and the race need not pass
that bridge of fire until it comes to 1t. The
most Of us prefer the old way. Bat whether
out of natui al disintegration or cremation we
shall get thai luminous, buoyant, gladstone.
| transcendent, magnificent, tnex plicable struct
ure called tie resurrection body; you will have
| it, 1 will have it. say to you to-day as Paul
| said TO Agrippa: why should it be thought
| a thing incredible with you that God should
| raise the iead?'' The far.up cloud. higher
| than the h,wk flies. higher than the eagle
| flies what is 1t made of? Drops of water from
| the Hudson other drops from the East river,
Other drops from s,agnant pool out on New
ark flats up yonder there. embodied in a
cloud and Inc sun kindles it, If God can
make such a lustrous cloud out of water drops
many of them soiled and impure and fetched
| from miles away. can he not transport the
| fragments o. \ human body from the earth
and out of hem build radiant body? Cannot
God who owns all the material out of which
bones a..t muscles and flesh are made, set
them up again if they have fallen? If a man
ufacturer Of telescopes drop telescope on the
| floor and it breaks. can he not mend 1T again
SO you can zee through it? And if God drops
the human eye into the dust, the eye which
he originally fashioned, can He not restore it?
70 tI1 of ell hxr,